Perryman-Keglovits game to give part of funds to Joey's Eagles

Nellie Grampp, who founded Joey's Eagles back in 1996, got a call from Rich Laverdure that literally put her in tears.

Wayne Witkowski

Nellie Grampp, who founded Joey's Eagles back in 1996, got a call from Rich Laverdure that literally put her in tears.

Laverdure is a board member of the Perryman-Keglovits Foundation that will hold its 11th annual Senior All-Star girls and boys basketball games pitting the best of the Mountain Valley Conference teams and Notre Dame on March 25 at East Stroudsburg University's Koehler Fieldhouse. He called to tell her that part of the proceeds for the game will go to the Joey's Eagles, which helps families with children facing serious illnesses.

"After Rich called me, I was in tears. That's how humbled I was," Grampp said. "The Lord continues to allow us to continue to keep helping. We are so humbled by the help of the community."

The other part of the proceeds continues to go toward the mission of the game: the fight against cancer. It has given proceeds in the past to the Dale & Frances Hughes Cancer Center and the Jimmy V Foundation. But Laverdure knew the needs of Joey's Eagles and made his recommendation to the board.

"I think about Rachel Moyer and Nellie how each lost a child for different reasons and how much energy they have to make sure that doesn't happen to another child," Laverdure said. "You can't stop a woman from doing what she does when that happens."

The girls play at 6 p.m. and the boys at 7:30 and the mission this year is to help in the battle against childhood cancer in the name of two young victims and former sports stars — Arthur Perryman and Al Keglovits. Laverdure said the game's namesake families also agreed to include Joey's Eagles as a recipient. Funding also comes from a summer golf benefit.

Tickets for the basketball doubleheader are a bargain — $5 for adults and $2 for children to see many great high school players, many on their way to college careers this fall. Laverdure said the funding has grown from $200 in the early years to about $5,000 to $7,000, but with the tough economy, it's hard to go beyond that. "It's not an easy task," he said.

Along with the gathering of funds, Grampp said the game will provide an ideal opportunity to reach a large audience that will get some to join the registry as bone marrow transplants. A local representative for Be The Match national bone marrow donor program will be present.

"One of our goals as an organization this year was to get this idea out at a large venue and we want young people and college people to join the registry. There is such a huge need that it is phenomenal," Grampp said, saying anyone in the 18 to 44 age group is welcome to register. "There is especially a need with the diverse population, which is less than 10 percent in this area.

"It's noninvasive — just a cheek swab for the DNA to match another in need in the bone marrow registry," Grampp said.

Her work does not stop there. A lot of Joey's Eagles support these days is devoted to Nellie Rojas, 16, a student at Stroudsburg High School recently diagnosed with leukemia. Rojas will try to attend the game.

"Her smile, her spirit are incredible," Grampp said passionately. "Her treatment for leukemia has failed and two days after the (basketball) game, she will go for a Haplo transplant, a t-cell, stem cell transplant from one of the parents. The family needs financial assistance."

Joey's Eagles helps families like this mainly with money for gas for their needed medical trips and anything available beyond that for medical care.

Grampp said she and Ann Adams, director of Bayada's Pediatric Home Care Services, met for the first time two weeks ago with the pediatric staff of Good Shepherd Hospital in Allentown to bring children's rehab services into this area for children with severe disabilities such as traumatic brain injuries, children born with cerebral palsy who had received physical therapy under acute patient care and now are under outpatient facility treatment.

"The meeting was wonderful. There's nothing like that here for children. They have it for adults but not children," said Grampp, who said the biggest obstacle is funding.

"Many times it's at a huge deficit financially and places like Good Shepherd have a lot of large corporate sponsors because of their phenomenal name and reputation."

Grampp said the Bayada administration staff in East Stroudsburg at Eagle Valley is helping her gather data for children in the area in need of this kind of services. "We're getting so much support," Grampp said.

She also said that Laura Law, mother of Madyson Law who died in a tragic accident at their Middle Smithfield home two years ago, is organizing a unique bereavement group for families dealing with the loss of a child. But instead of the group geared to entire families or the parents, this group will hold monthly meetings for the younger people in the family only — siblings and close relatives.

It will be held the first Tuesday of every month starting April 2 at Middle Smithfield Presbyterian. All meetings will start at 7 p.m.

Joey's Eagles will have their next family group support session for families with children afflicted with serious illnesses o1 p.m. on April 13 at Shawnee Inn.

In other news, congratulations to East Stroudsburg University's Terrance King of Bushkill who was named to the first team of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference as he helped ESU (22-5) beat Mansfield. 102-74, to secure a PSAC Tournament semifinal spot against Slippery Rock at Indiana University (Pa.) tonight. King, who had scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Mansfield, will tie the school record for most postseason games when he takes the floor.

Also, Gary Summers is running for one of the four expiring seats on the East Stroudsburg school board for the May 21 primary elections. No surprise as many residents said for some time that he's been interested in running. Summers is collecting signatures for his petitions until the March 12 closing date to file with the Monroe County Board of Elections.